Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

A diet free of foods containing gluten doesn’t have to mean a boring diet. Wheat free recipes shouldn’t require a dozen obscure ingredients that you’ve never heard of. A lot can be done with only two: rice flour and xanthan gum. Rice flour can be found very cheaply in the Asian food sections of many supermarkets, or at Asian grocery stores. It can also be found, less cheaply, in the supermarket health food section or specialty health food stores. Xanthan gum can be a bit trickier, but is vital to prevent your baked goods from falling apart; it performs the function of gluten in your wheat free recipes without causing those nasty wheat intolerance symptoms. Ask at your supermarket, check health food stores, or buy it online– http://www.herbalremedies.com sells it, as do many other online stores. Don’t panic when you see the price; recipes generally call for less than a teaspoon, so it will last a long time.

This gluten-free and dairy-free chocolate chip cookie recipe goes one step further by replacing refined sugar with natural, delicious honey. One caveat: don’t feed honey to babies less than one year old.

Okay, here we go!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dairy-free shortening

2/3 cup honey

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla (make sure your brand is gluten-free; some aren’t)

1 1/4 cups rice flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 cup gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate chips (chopped dates are also a delicious substitution)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F (175C).

In a large bowl, beat shortening and honey until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the rice flour, salt, baking soda, and xanthan gum. Stir the dry ingredients gradually into the wet ingredients and beat until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips or chopped dates.

Place greased foil or parchment paper over cookie sheets. Drop cookie dough onto the sheets by the spoonful, leaving plenty of space in between for them to spread. Avoid the temptation to make the cookies too large– we’re going for thin and crispy, here. Bake for 6 minutes in center oven positions. Turn cookie sheets 180 degrees. Bake for another 4 minutes, or until golden brown. Cookies will be tender, but will quickly turn crisp as they cool.

Makes approximately 48 two-inch cookies.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under wheat free recipes, wheat intolerance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.